If you ran a car brand and had a product that was more profitable than a couple of your others combined, but didn’t match the direction you wanted to take your nameplate, would you continue to build it? And if said vehicle made your dealer body as happy as clams even though you weren’t especially fond of it, would you kill it? This dilemma has been facing General Motors for the better part of a year, and it seems cash has won out: GM has decided to give Cadillac both a contemporary large luxury crossover and a beefy, truck-based new-gen Escalade, cannibalization be damned.

The Escalade EXT (2012 model shown) won't return.

Lambda and Truck-Based SUVs Co-Exist

Word of a Lambda-based Cadillac crossover has been floating around for a while. The product has been approved, but the question as to where the vehicle would be positioned was not clear. Properly styled, a Lambda-based Cadillac could act as an Escalade replacement. After all, that crossover platform was designed to accept a small-block V-8 from the start and has a better package for three rows of seats than a standard Escalade. Plus the present Lambdas (Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia, Chevy Traverse) ride on a wheelbase almost three inches longer than the Escalade’s. Also, the current crop of Lambda crossovers ranges from 200.7 inches to 203.7 inches in overall length, neatly bracketing the 202.5-inch Escalade. A better-tailored, more-efficient, smarter Escalade to complement the SRX and rumored smaller Caddy crossover is what many at GM wanted. The argument against another truck-based version centered on such a vehicle being too dinosaur-like for a global luxury brand, and one out of phase with the path GM has plotted for Cadillac.

High-minded philosophical brand discussions aside, today’s Escalade is a license to print money. Period. When the current version appeared with its bumper-to-bumper brightwork, extensive specific body panels, and unique interior appointments, it launched like a ton of metal tailings shot from a cannon. In fact, all of the incremental tooling required to differentiate it from the lesser GMT900 SUVs was paid off as the model went into just its 22nd week of sales! Historically, the dealer margins on an Escalade have been among the highest in the industry.

Even now, late in its life cycle, the luxury full-size SUV requires little marketing to keep it moving off of lots. So the Escalade is a cash cow in both regular and longer ESV versions, and dealers love ‘em. It’s no surprise that piles of lucre proved too great a temptation for Cadillac to kill the Escalade.

Current-generation 2012 Cadillac Escalade ESV

Let’s Call it GMT1000

For its next go-round, the Escalade will continue to be derived from GM’s family of full-size sport-utilities, sharing much of its structure with the Chevy Tahoe/Suburban and GMC’s Yukon/Yukon XL. The use of additional high-strength steel in the body structure will offset some of the mass gains normally associated with stricter impact-protection requirements. That said, don’t look for the new Escalade to slim down much from its present avoirdupois. (Our long-term example weighed nearly 5700 pounds.) Needless to say, the same will hold true for the next Chevy and GMC full-sizers.

Plans call for GM’s updated Gen V small-block V-8 engine to appear in the next Escalade. Like the 6.2-liter L92 used in today’s version, the Gen V engine will continue with dual-setting variable valve timing but will add direct fuel injection and cylinder deactivation, while its compression ratio will be bumped to over 11.0:1. Displacement is expected to drop to 6.0 liters or possibly less to enhance fuel economy, with power remaining somewhere near the current 403-hp figure. In a perfect world, the Escalade would launch with both the Gen V engine and GM’s new eight-speed automatic. But with the company still discussing where to prioritize the debut of the gearbox, it presently looks as though the next Escalade will initially appear with the General’s six-speed 6L80-E transmission. The eight-speed automatic gearbox will then supersede the 6L80-E during the Escalade’s lifespan.

With the launch of the new version, the Escalade range will be pared down. With the demise of the Chevrolet Avalanche truck-UV, it should surprise no one that its luxury sibling, the Escalade EXT pickup, will not reappear. And now we get to the interesting part: The overall length of the next Escalade is unclear. Whether the truck-based four-door SUV will be derived from a Tahoe/Yukon body and frame or the longer Suburban/Yukon XL is not yet known. But with the addition of a Cadillac using the Lambda front-drive architecture, which will approximate the current Escalade’s exterior dimensions, there is a better-than-even chance that the new version of the truck-based SUV will be available only in long-wheelbase/long-rear-overhang guise. Since the Lambda could carry the Escalade badge (or some variant thereof), the new model Escalade could continue the ESV suffix. Or Escalade Classic.

Some of the powertrain details will be adopted for the next Yukon Denali, but the full-size Escalade’s appearance and interior once again will be unique to that model. Living large, at least at Cadillac, has been given a reprieve.